1. Field of the Invention
The present invention related to cameras having a synchronous shooting function, and a recording medium having a program recorded thereon, the program being used in the cameras to control the shooting operation, and to a method of controlling the shooting operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, a moving-image shooting and reproducing method was known, which used plural cameras to shoot the same object using different camera angles to obtain plural moving images and reproduced the plural moving images in synchronization. This method is used among athletes (for example, golfers) to check their golf-club swinging forms. The golfer shoots plural flat images (two-dimensional images) using the different shooting angles and reproduces plural flat images in synchronization, whereby the golfer can see the reproduced moving image of his/her swinging motion in three dimensions. Observing the reproduced moving image, the golfer can check his/her swinging motion of the same moment in three dimensions and can sterically evaluate the motion of every moment.
To observe and evaluate object's motion of the same moment, it is required that the frames of the plural moving images to be reproduced are shot at a completely-matched time and the frames to be reproduced in synchronization are those shot simultaneously. In a camera system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-344800, all the cameras or the cameras excepting one camera are provided with a single light detecting means specified in detecting an optical signal and said means prepared separately from an imaging unit (photoelectric conversion device) in a light receiving unit. Further, the cameras are provided with signal controlling means for initializing the timings of frame synchronizing signals in response to detection of the optical signal, and the shooting operations of all the cameras are synchronized with each other, taking the generation of the optical signal as a cue.